Bootlegging, surreptitious copying and other methods of acquiring content without compensating a rights-holder for content is an old problem. From the advent of movable type (and relatively easy printing) through the introduction of photocopying, technology has made copying and effectively stealing content easier and easier. The march of technology has recently caught audio and video content in its wake, particularly with the rise of the Internet.
However, this latest technology is based on digital representations of content, which can also incorporate various forms of copy protection and can allow for monitoring of transactions. Peer-to-peer and centralized content outlets presently exist. Exemplary of peer-to-peer content outlets are Gnutella™ and Kazaa™. Exemplary of centralized content outlets are iTunes™, audible.com™ and the defunct Napster™. Such content outlets provide access to a repository of content available typically as individual tracks of either audio (songs for example) or audiovisual/visual (movies for example) works. Presently, most content outlets may also be categorized as either authorized or unauthorized, with authorized content outlets providing content under a license from rights-holders and unauthorized content outlets providing unlicensed content. While some content may not require a license, most content of interest to consumers exists under restrictions of copyright held by authors and performers or their assignees. Many of the rights-holders are assignees of performers. Examples of rights-holders include media controllers such as studios, record labels and media companies, along with individual authors or performers. With current download technology and methodologies, many of the copies of content made in the downloading process are not licensed, and the rights-holders are not compensated for these copies. Thus, it may be useful to provide a way of compensating rights-holders for these copies. Some rights-holders have lost records of what content they hold rights to. Thus, it may be useful to provide a way for rights-holders to claim content, and to resolve disputes between multiple claimants to individual content. Similarly, some rights-holders have rights to vast amounts of content whereas other rights-holders may be concerned with small amounts of content. It may be useful to provide a single point of access for content outlets to determine what is owed for content, rather than a myriad number of rights-holders to contact.